# Conversions: GJ to litres
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 28, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778 "2010-01-28T16:35:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/1 "2010-01-28T16:35:19Z")
I am pulling my hair out! Please help (with the conversion, not with pulling my hair out, tyvm)!
I am trying to convert the following:
25,135 GJ of Diesel in to litres
268,424 GJ of Natural Gas in to litres
What I will be doing afterwards is entering these numbers (in litres) into a large spreadsheet that will then convert these numbers back into GJ. The conversion for Diesel, according to the spreadsheet, is .039 GJ/litre, and .036 GJ/m3 of natural gas.
WHY they make this so confusing is beyond me.
I’ve gone through this a few times and it’s just not making sense. Please, if you can help, show your math and provide me with any cites!
Thank you very, very much!
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/2 "2010-01-28T16:45:31Z")
😉
> [@EmAnJ](#):
>
> I am pulling my hair out! Please help (with the conversion, not with pulling my hair out, tyvm)!
>
> I am trying to convert the following:
>
> 25,135 GJ of Diesel in to litres
> 268,424 GJ of Natural Gas in to litres
>
> What I will be doing afterwards is entering these numbers (in litres) into a large spreadsheet that will then convert these numbers back into GJ. The conversion for Diesel, according to the spreadsheet, is .039 GJ/litre, and .036 GJ/m3 of natural gas.
>
> WHY they make this so confusing is beyond me.
>
> I’ve gone through this a few times and it’s just not making sense. Please, if you can help, show your math and provide me with any cites!
>
> Thank you very, very much!
Easy. Just divide 25,135 GJ of diesel by 0.039 GJ/L to get liters. The answer, using the conversion factor provided, is 644,487 liters of diesel.
No cite necessary–this is just basic unit conversion.
The second conversion is left as an exercise to the OP. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/3 "2010-01-28T16:47:07Z")
I assume GJ in this sense is gigaJoules, correct?
For the diesel, you should just need to multiply the conversion factor by the GJ.
For natural gas, you need to do the same, then convert cubic metres to litres. Just move the decimal 3 places to the right.
I’m curious who ‘they’ is in “WHY they make this so confusing is beyond me.”
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/4 "2010-01-28T16:47:28Z")
Actually, you need to use a an additional conversion factor for the second problem:
1 m[sup]3[/sup] = 1,000 L
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/5 "2010-01-28T16:52:31Z")
> [@Saltire](#):
>
> I assume GJ in this sense is gigaJoules, correct?
>
> For the diesel, you should just need to multiply the conversion factor by the GJ.
No, you don’t.
You divide the number of GJ by the supplied conversion factor of 0.039 GJ/L to get liters.
(You would multiply the supplied conversion factor of 0.039 GJ/L by the number of liters to get GJ.)
---
### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/6 "2010-01-28T16:52:47Z")
Ok, seriously, I think what’s confusing me is half of this spreadsheet is in French, and the calculations don’t make sense. I feel really stupid now, tbh. My brain is fried at this point and I really am not thinking straight. I’ve always been bad at math, but this is ridiculous.
‘They’ are the head office. I work for an international company out of Paris (I’m in Canada) and there always seems to be some sort of translation error when they send stuff over. The report I’m working on is the global sustainability report, and I fill it in for Western Canada.
Thanks for saving me from making a fool of myself in front of people I work with! Ha!
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/7 "2010-01-28T16:59:02Z")
> [@robby](#):
>
> …The second conversion is left as an exercise to the OP. 😉
OK–I’ll do this one, too.
For this one, the conversion is as follows:
(268,424 GJ of natural gas) x (1 m[sup]3[/sup]/0.036 GJ) x (1000 L/m[sup]3[/sup]) = 7.456 x 10[sup]9[/sup] liters of natural gas
---
### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/8 "2010-01-28T16:59:29Z")
To clarify for the Natural Gas:
268,424 GJ / .036 = 7,456,222 L
7,456,222 L \* .001 = 7,456.2 m3
Correct?
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/9 "2010-01-28T17:02:01Z")
> [@EmAnJ](#):
>
> To clarify for the Natural Gas:
>
> 268,424 GJ / .036 = 7,456,222 L
>
> 7,456,222 L \* .001 = 7,456.2 m3
>
> Correct?
No. See previous post. You are off by a factor of a thousand.
It helps if you write the units when calculating conversions.
---
### Author:  [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/10 "2010-01-28T17:02:30Z")
Never mind.
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/11 "2010-01-28T17:07:06Z")
> [@EmAnJ](#):
>
> To clarify for the Natural Gas:
>
> 268,424 GJ / .036 = 7,456,222 L
>
> 7,456,222 L \* .001 = 7,456.2 m3
>
> Correct?
> [@robby](#):
>
> No. See previous post. You are off by a factor of a thousand.
>
> It helps if you write the units when calculating conversions.
To amplify, your equations would properly be written as follows:
(268,424 GJ) x (1 m[sup]3[/sup]/0.036 GJ) = 7,456,222 m[sup]3[/sup]
7,456,222 m[sup]3[/sup] x (1000 L/m[sup]3[/sup]) = 7.456 x 10[sup]9[/sup] L
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conversions-gj-to-litres/526778/12 "2010-01-28T17:16:31Z")
> [@Saltire](#):
>
> I wanted to add a cite: [Energy Density of Diesel Fuel - The Physics Factbook](http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/TatyanaNektalova.shtml)
>
> As you can see, it says there’s about 38.60-39.60 MJ/L in diesel, which agrees with your conversion factor. It translates to 0.386-0.396 GJ/L.
>
> It does not agree with robby, I’m afraid. His division leads to more liters than GJ, which is inconsistent with there being a fraction of a GJ in each liter.
If there is a fraction of a GJ in each liter, then this is completely consistent with the result leading to more liters than GJ.
ETA: I see that you deleted your previous statement.